David Johansen (vocals), Johnny Thunders (guitar), Sylvain Sylvain (guitar), Billy Murcia (drums), and Arthur 'Killer' Kane (bass). The New York Dolls created punk rock before there was a term for it. Building on the Rolling Stones' dirty rock & roll, Mick Jagger's adrogeny, girl group pop, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and the Stooges' anarchic noise, the New York Dolls created a new form of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal. Their drug-fueled, shambolic performances influenced a generation of musicians in New York and London, who all went on to form punk bands. And although they self-destructed quickly, the band's two albums remained two of the most popular cult records in rock & roll history.

With only a few demos recorded, the band were invited to support The Faces on a UK tour. After playing to 13,000 people at Wembley, disaster struck. Billy Murcia drowned in the bath he'd been placed in to recover after passing out drunk. Back in New York the group recruited Jerry Nolan as their new drummer and got ready to start recording their debut LP, after signing with Mercury. Recorded and mixed in under a week, The New York Dolls (1973) contained such proto-punk classics as "Trash", "Jet Boy" and "Looking For A Kiss", but, though it received much critical praise, the band were unhappy with the sound that produceer Todd Rundgren had given them. Worse disagreements were to come.

For Too Much Too Soon (1974), Johansen secured the services of Shangri-La's producer Shadow Morton (his original choice for the debut LP), much to the annoyance of Thunders, who wanted to produce it himself. Morton completely failed to understand The Dolls' music, and what on paper appeared to be a fascinating combination resulted in comprehensive failure. After the album's poor reception the band began to fall apart. Thunders and Johansen argued constantly and Kane's descent into alcoholism meant that he was only capable of miming his bass parts at live shows.

Enter Malcolm Mclaren, who arrived as the band's manager in late 1974, so desperate to salvage something from the disintegrating Dolls that he even took on a job as a window cleaner to help fund Kane's detox bill. McLaren devised a new look for The Dolls with the help of his partner Vivienne Westwood. The band started appearing in red patent leather on a stage draped in Russian and Chinese flags. But while McLaren hoped that this commie roadshow would outrage patriotic Americans and rejuvenate The Dolls with an injection of controversy, all that his manipulations succeeded in doing was splitting the band. Thunders left midway through a tour of Florida in 1975, returning to New York with Nolan and a growing heroin addiction to put together the Heartbreakers.

After ejecting Kane, Johansen and Sylvain dragged a last version of The Dolls through a short tour of Japan, finally laying the group to rest in December 1976.